After two long years my books are finally done and dusted. I’ve compiled two books, the first Myhumblefood book concentrates on Asian home cooking. The second book is a little more fun; along with some Western home cooking, I’ve also added a section on Food Art which is something I really enjoy. They’re both priced at RM 300 a set for people residing in Malaysia, or SGD 120 a set for those in Singapore.

Free delivery for those in Bangsar and Damansara Heights only.

Please PM me for details!

Special note: 50% of gross profit from the sale of the books will be donated to the National Kidney Foundation as well as the Great Heart Charity Foundation. Should you decide to also donate in addition to buying the book(s), 100% of your donation will go directly to these causes.

The above picture is from my 2nd attempt at making tamagoyaki. Its a pretty common food in Japanese and Korean cuisine. Perhaps the only difference is that the Koreans don’t make it with sugar, dashi or sake. Of course, the Japanese tamagoyaki has both sweet and savory versions but I prefer the sweet version. While it is helpful to have a rectangular pan for this recipe, it is not necessary. You can make tamagoyaki using a normal frying pan.

For my first attempt, I made tamagoyaki using only 3 eggs and using a low fire. Not only did I have to wait a longer time for the egg to cook, but the egg roll came out kinda small, flat and not as fluffy. It was worse when it got cold and shrank further in size T___T. I poured in only enough egg to cover the surface for the first round but this was a mistake in my opinion.

In my 2nd attempt, I used 5 eggs on medium-high heat in a smaller and deeper frying pan. I poured in half the eggs for the first round of cooking and that made the egg roll fluffier. The end result? Thick egg rolls!!! ❤

Other than that generally the cooking methodology is still similar, which is why I’m including my first attempt here as well.

Ingredients

5 eggs

1-1.5 tbsp sugar

5 tbsp water or dashi

1 tsp salt (more or less depending on how salty the dashi is)

1 tsp mirin

1 tsp sake

You will need some kitchen paper for oiling the pan after each round of frying as well.

Instructions

Combine the dashi/water, sugar, mirin, salt and sake into a bowl. Mix thoroughly.

Break the eggs into the bowl with the dashi mixture and beat to just combine but do not overly beat it as we want some egg white bits in the tamagoyaki. Run a chopstick a few times through the mixture to ensure that the eggs are broken up and can be poured easily.

Keep a bowl of oil with kitchen towel next to the pan. You will use this to continuously oil the pan after each round of cooking.

Oil the pan and heat it up on medium-high flame.

Pour in half the eggs.

Scramble it a little. Fold over when the bottom is set enough to flip it over. Oil the exposed side of the pan, and then gently push the “omelette” to the side of the pan. Oil the rest of the pan before adding more egg. This time add just enough egg to cover the pan.

Above, I’ve already pushed the first layer of egg to the side and added the 2nd thinner layer. Lift the first “Omelette” so that the second layer of egg goes underneath to coat the entire pan. See those bubbles forming? Pop them!

Hehehe! Once this layer is more or less set, flip the thicker part onto the thin layer. This would create the “roll” layer. Again, oil the exposed part of the pan, push the egg to that side and oil the rest of the pan. Then add another layer of egg. Continue the process until all the egg is used up.

The last bit of egg… and you’re done! Brown the outsides if you like but don’t overdo it. If you want to shape the tamagoyaki into something more rectangular/oval you can make use of a sushi mat, but you have to shape it when it’s still hot.

Lastly, slice the tamagoyaki and serve 😉

I did not shape the tamagoyaki so the shape of it has a mind of its own T___T

I’m also going to add pictures from my first attempt. You can see that the heat is lower and the pan is bigger. So I “rolled” the egg several times and pushed the egg to the middle instead of the very end.

Waiting for the egg to cook before flipping the roll towards the left.

Above, after pushing the roll to the middle, I added another layer of egg.

Continue the process…

Finally done.

Now to cut it!

As you can see, the roll isn’t very thick. Also, it shrank after it cooled and wasn’t as fluffy. Which is why I prefer the first method of cooking on medium high heat and in a smaller pan. Cooking half the eggs and scrambling them in the first round saves time and also makes the eggs fluffy. So try it yourself and see which way works well for you.

Here’s an easy kyaraben (Character bento) that you could attempt. This anime character is Shin Chan, one of the many anime characters that bring back a wave of university nostalgia. For the list of tools used, please refer to my first bento post.To make Shin Chan’s face, I used some rice mixed with Salmon furikake (to make the flesh tone). I couldn’t find a furikake that had no seaweed in it so unfortunately my flesh tone had little specks of seaweed in them T___T. It turned out ok in the end though.

For the hair, eyes and eyebrows I cut out strips of seaweed using a sharp design cutter as shown in my first bento post.

As usual, I drew my design on paper, just to make the face fit in with the other food I wanted to put into my bento. Using this design as a template, you can then cut out the hair, eyes and eyebrows by clipping the paper on top of a sheet of nori on a cutting board as shown in the pictures below.

So the sequence is: Paper, seaweed and then cutting board. All fastened together to make it easier to cut out the delicate pieces of seaweed. Then you mix your Salmon furikake into the rice, place it into the bento box and shape it into the form that you’ve drawn in the design, roughly in the same size as accurately as possible. Then add the seaweed hair, eyes and eyebrows.

If added the seaweed directly onto the rice, the seaweed will shrivel. However I find that cutting out cheese to form the base for the seaweed infinitely cumbersome so I skipped that step. Cheese normally should be the base for any form of seaweed art so that the seaweed remains nice and flat instead of all crumpled and shriveled like it was in my bento T____TSo there it is. I cut out some flowers from an apple, added an egg and some chicken. Then I used a chunk of chilli for Shin Chan’s mouth. I suppose you could use ketchup or do it the professional way and use an egg sheet dyed red. Too much trouble to make the egg sheet for such a small area. Plus I like the spicy kick that the chilli lent. This is the second part of the bento. Just a compilation of the stuff I wanted to eat. Make sure that moist foods like fruits are separated from dry foods using rubber separators or in this case, leaves 😉 I wouldn’t want that egg tart to turn soggy!

I’d like to draw your attention to the apples. I saw these designs in a magazine but couldn’t understand how it was made so I freestyled it… basically I winged it. I cut some apple chunks with the skin still on, in large cubes. Then I made four shallow cuts in the skin with a small knife, in the form of a hashtag # (I hope you understand what I’m bumbling on about, guess this is where a video would be much more educational than my incoherent words). Use the knife to gently peel off the skin slices in alternate blocks, leaving the skin on in some blocks so that it forms the design as shown. It is actually easier than it looks.

And there you have it, a Shin Chan bento. This was quick, delicious and fun to prepare. Definitely fun to eat as well 😉

Edit: Just updated the post with a couple of photos from the slr. Thought it would look a little nicer 😉

I’m really really behind on my posts! I’ve got sooooo much to blog about, but have been too busy travelling the past month.

Now to complete this post!

As always for seaweed art in bento making, you need the cutting board, cutter for intricate designs, a piece of paper, binding clips, paper, a slice of cheese, a large sheet of seaweed, a pencil, a pair of small sharp scissors and tweezers.

Firstly trace out the shape of your bento box onto the piece of paper. Then and only then do you start drawing/sketching your favorite character within the drawn boundaries. Something not too complicated, with simple and clear lines would be good. Otherwise you’d be snipping the life out of the seaweed!

Another tip. Try not to handle the seaweed with your bare hands as much as you can. The heat and moisture from your fingers will cause the seaweed to go limp and difficult to manage. Use the tweezers instead.

Once you’re done with the drawing, place the drawing on top of the seaweed and clip both drawing and seaweed to the cutting board. To ensure that the drawing doesnt move around while you’re cutting, ensure that the drawing is as close to the clipped area as possible. If you’ve left a lot of space between the drawing and the binding clips, it will make cutting a whole lot more difficult as the seaweed and paper are more prone to moving about and tearing.

Start cutting out the white bits! Start by cutting out the small white bits first. Once you’re done with the little tricky bits, you can then cut out the larger white bits.

Here I’ve cut off the larger bit after completing the smaller parts. Of course, I couldn’t perfectly cut everything. I accidentally cut off the eye area but that’s ok. I can use another piece of seaweed to create another eye.

For the thinner lines such as the hair and the scar, it would be better to use the scissors rather than try to attempt to cut out fine lines using the cutter.

Fix on the thinner strips of seaweed onto the cheese to complete the character.

Lastly, trim the cheese if you prefer, and place as a decoration on top of your completed bento. I shan’t show my actual bento here because it was sloppy and simple. Just egg sandwiches that night.

Hopefully in my next bento attempt I’ll create something nice and cute! Something perhaps a little different from seaweed art.

So for my next bento, I did a Naruto Kyaraben seaweed art. Again, I used the same tools as before but its easier this time around as the ingredients required for the seaweed art is only cheese and seaweed. I thought ikura would be perfect for giving him that volcanic bubbly nine-fox demon effect so I added that in as well. It helps that I love ikura 😉

Tools used are the same as before or maybe less… : cutting mat, cutter for intricate designs, paper, pen/pencil, binding clips

So first, you draw an outline of your bento so you can draw your design within these boundaries. And then you draw your character, emphasizing on the black areas. You will cut out only the white bits. I think I shot myself in the foot by finding a drawing so intricate that it was difficult to cut the white bits properly T___T

Next, place the sketch over the seaweed on the cutting board, and clip paper and seaweed securely onto the board.

Start cutting the white bits. That is the cutter I used. I initially used a ceramic cutter but this is way easier.

And continue the cutting while removing the seaweed bits at the same time. It will be easier to keep the board free of excess paper/seaweed moving around.

You can see here that the patterns are starting to develop on the sheet of seaweed.

I suggest cutting the smaller bits first before you cut the large areas. This is because its easier this way and will result in less tearing of the seaweed.

Almost done.

I put some rice into the bento, topped with seaweed and placed the slice of cheese where I wanted it. I’m not sure if it was a lucky mistake that I placed the cheese on the rice while it was still hot! So basically my cheese was warm and sticky such that anything that stuck to it cannot be removed! Therefore if you mess up the placement of the character here, its all ruined! On the bright side, the seaweed is more adhesive and very unlikely to fly away.

Once you’ve stuck the seaweed character onto the cheese, build your bento! Ikura against a dark seaweed background lends a little mystery to the overall effect 😉 and the tiny yellow tomatoes were just there to contrast with the smaller ikura.

We’re done!

This bento is made for immediate consumption because there is no way you can put sashimi in a lunchbox and expect it to keep well in room temperature. Bacteria and all.

Yours truly here was too eager to start making BAMMMM cute bentos right away without mastering the basics, so this post is about my attempt at the “Advanced level”. Explains why perhaps my bentos arent as awesome as some out there but oh well, its my first go at it!

I’ll try to share how I made the bento as well to the best of my knowledge. There are a lot of books out there on Bento-making, but the best are always in Japanese. I bought them anyways, I find that you can still follow the pictures. Good bento-making books include a step-by-step, so head down to Kinokuniya for books on 弁当!

a cutter (the blade has to be small enough to be used for intricate detailed cutting)

small and sharp scissors (very important that it be sharp and sharp ended, not those safe and clumsy round tip blades that could wreck your seaweed)

tweezers (life savers)

pencil, pen, eraser

Baking paper/tracing paper

Bento box

Cute toothpicks and wooden toothpicks

Small brush, thoroughly cleaned, for painting the food colouring on

Ingredients used:-

2 slices of bread with the brown edges cut off to fit into the bento box

Sliced cheese

Tamago bought from the Japanese supermarket (just because it was a nice bright yellow and I was lazy to make thin Japanese omelettes. I should have… because this tamago that i bought was really hard to use!)

Ham (light coloured ham and darker coloured ham) – as thin as possible, so yours doesnt turn up too thick and chunky like mine. Also makes it easier to cut

Cherry tomatoes (1 for each bento)

Blue food colouring

Roasted seaweed (comes in large squares), get the unseasoned ones, those are easier to cut.

Fruit and cooked meats and vegetables of your choice

Cooked rice

A dab of mayo to act as a sticking agent

Below, my loot from collecting bento making tools. The bento boxes can be bought from takashimaya, Japanese supermarkets or online. I bought some of the cutters from Takashimaya, some from Daiso. Tweezers are from Daiso as well.

Above, the tools used. Starting from the top: Cutting mat, binder clips, pen knifes for intricate cutting (don’t buy the usual pen knifes, those are too big for the work you’ll be doing), eraser, pencil, pen, small scissors, tweezers.

Instructions:

First of all, you have to outline your bento box on a piece of paper. This is to make the bento easier to design and will give you a gauge of how much food you need to buy.

Then you choose your favourite character and draw him/her within the bento box line. I started off with Rukia from Bleach just because her hair is black, and not some funky colour like green or pink etc. So its easier for me. Also Naruto’s colours are made up of orange, flesh tones, white and black. Not too bad as well.

I’ve compiled a list of foods to match the colours:

Pink/flesh toned – Ham, salami, pickled ginger, pink powder (you see this sprinkled on rice sometimes, not sure what is the exact name)

Enoki and button mushrooms make great pebbles/stones interpretation in the bentos, while broccoli and english parsley make great shrubs 😉 Use your imagination!

Below, Naruto and Rukia sketched onto a piece of paper:

Decide on the position of your character, and then start to eke out what foods will complement/fill out the rest of the bento. Of course, think about what you’d like to eat as well.

With this, you’ll be able to shop for groceries 😉

For Naruto, many layers are involved. A lot of ham and egg layers as well as seaweed. So, you need a base to hold everything. which is what you see in the top left outline of Naruto. This will be the foundation to hold the rest of the layers. I drew all the layering on a piece of baking paper. Then I cut up the paper into smaller sections so its easier to work with.

Lay out the sketch outline onto the ham and cut slowly along the lines.

Edit: It would be easier to cut out the shapes on the baking paper, and lay it onto the cheese/ham to cut. I was lazy so I made my life way more difficult that way =(

Above, the foundation laid out on a slice of bread, so later on its easy to move.

Trace out the seaweed parts onto a tracing paper, and fasten the tracing paper on top of a piece of seaweed onto the cutting mat. Trace along the lines with your blade to cut out the seaweed in the desired shape.

I put the seaweed on as the 3rd layer, the 2nd layer being Naruto’s face. Then I traced out the egg and put that on as 4th layer.

Then you need to cut out the yellow egg for the eyes. This is where straws of different sizes would come in handy as they cut perfect circles. But I forgot to buy them, so now I have uneven eyes T____T. It is a little difficult to trace out small strips of seaweed for the eyes and mouth, so I used the scissors to create them. Its useful to have a dab of mayonnaise at hand to get the seaweed to stick to the ham.

This Naruto ham and cheese sandwich took me 2.5 hours to make since the seaweed was so fiddly and there were so many layers!

Next up, Rukia~

For Rukia there won’t be any layering, because this is going to be a seaweed art piece. So all I used for her is a slice of cheese, seaweed and a little bit of food colouring.

Rukia layers on the baking paper. When you do seaweed art it is important to emphasize the black areas on the piece, as you will need to cut out the white bits.

First, cut out the foundation: instead of using a toothpick, you can trace the on the line with a knife, and remove the paper to cut the cheese. Much easier that way as it is easy to see the trace lines on cheese rather than say, ham.

Place the foundation on a mound of rice, packed tight.

Start working on the seaweed!

Fasten securely on the cutting mat.

Cut out the white bits and carefully poke out the white parts. Its ok if you accidentally tear some of it off, you can use another piece of seaweed to fix it later.

Place her hair onto the foundation, and add seaweed for the blacks of her eyes (since I accidentally tore it off). Then cut out a piece of seaweed for her clothes. Then you will need to use a pair of scissors to cut fine seaweed lines for her nose, mouth and chin, as well as her clothes.